


Nightmare Arrow

by roguebowtie



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint Needs a Hug, Clint doesn't have issues, Clint has a library full of subscriptions, Coulson Lives, Everyone needs to hug Clint, Gen, In which Clint DOES Not Know, M/M, Mostly Clint, Poor Clint, With a side of Phil and Maria and Ward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 13:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguebowtie/pseuds/roguebowtie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stain of blood on wall and lips as the body slides down, and it <i>is</i> a body.  There isn't a chance for a heroic last breath.  A final word.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmare Arrow

Breathe.  

Draw.  

Hold.  

Release and breathe out.  

The arrow flying through the air swift and silent.

Finding its mark as it always has.

 The dull _thud_ of the arrow hitting body, between the ribs, into the _heart_.

 Blue eyes lifting, following the arrow's path back to the archer as the body falls back against a wall.

 The stain of blood on wall and lips as the body slides down, and it _is_ a body.  There isn't a chance for a heroic last breath.  A final word.  A legacy.

 Just betrayal and understanding.... then nothing.

_Gone._

 Satisfaction drowning out everything.

 * * *

 Clint woke, choking on his own breath.  He flicked on the light and looked around the room.

 Yellows, and oranges.  No blue.

 Breathing came easier, then.

 No.

 _Blue_.

 It took a few minutes for memory to kick in and remind him that it hadn't been an arrow that'd killed Agent Phil Coulson. _It hadn't been an arrow_.  It was Loki, everyone always told him that.

It.

Was.

Loki.

 But Clint knew better.  He knew it was only Loki, because of the plan he'd helped Loki hatch.

The 'capture'.  

The mercenaries Clint brought in.  

Clint's plan for the helicarrier attack.  

Clint's plan that kept nearly everyone from _the room_.

 _His_ plan - when he knew that Coulson was the kind of man who had a knack to show up where people didn't think to go.  Where _he_ knew trouble would be. He told Loki about the man in the suit, the man who believed in _heroes_ when he didn't realise he was one himself.

 The man Loki should watch out for, because he was all the more dangerous for being underestimated.

 _It hadn't been an arrow_.

 But to Clint, alone in his room at Stark's tower.  Alone and steering clear of anything blue in his life, be it food, clothing, light, blankets.... anything that wasn't Cap's uniform (and that was an entirely different agony to witness, to fight beside).  

 Alone.

 " _You have Heart,_ " the god had said, right before taking it, shredding it into something unrecognisable, something unholy and wrong and deformed.

 Something Natasha, and then the others who didn't even know him - who somehow cared, tried to piece back together.

_"You have Heart."_

 No.  

No, he didn't.

 His heart was stabbed through in a nearly empty room on the Helicarrier, blood staining a wall, a suit.

_"You have Heart."_

 Clint got out of the bed, grabbed his bow, and went down to the range.

 * * *

_"It wasn't much of a stretch. I stopped breathing for about 40 seconds."_

_"Eight. It gets longer every time you tell it."_

_"Yeah, well, you get shanked by the Asgardian Mussolini, you can tell it your way. I was looking at the big white light, and it felt a lot longer than eight seconds."_

_"Do they know? The Avengers - that Fury played them?"_

_"They're not Level Seven."_

 * * *

  _“...Heart._ ”

 He had heart, once.  It got him in a world of trouble.  He would spend the rest of his life trying to cut it out of his chest.

 Breathe.  

 Draw.  

 Hold.  

 Release and breathe out.  

 The arrow flying through the air swift and silent.

 Finding its mark as it always has.

 

 


End file.
